Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Apparently Cliven Bundy’s supporters in his showdown with the Bureau
of Land Management (BLM) over cattle grazing rights aren’t satisfied
with having forced the government to end its roundup operation. Now some of them are bent on punishing the people they blame for the creating the situation.

Rob Mrowka of Las Vegas, who heads up the Center for Biological Diversity – the Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental organization whose lawsuits over the desert tortoise forced
the BLM’s hand in rounding up Bundy’s cattle, which had been grazing
for free on public lands that comprised the animal’s habitat – says he
started getting calls about three days before the right-wing Bundy media blitz. And then it became a deluge.

“It kind of started out with a phone call from a guy in Mississippi
who called, and myself and someone in the Tucson office picked up and
talked to him,” Mrowka said, adding that a third colleague did not pick
up, and for him, he “left a disturbing voice message. That was just the
start of it.”

The message the man left on the voicemail was similar to what he told
Mrowka and his colleague in person: “I am holding you personally
responsible for every one of Cliven Bundy’s cattle that is confiscated.
For his son David, who’s in jail, and for anything that happens to them
in the future. And since I am holding you responsible, I plan on making
you pay. There’s no need for you to call me back. This is your notice.
You’ve been fighting a war against us for awhile, we’re gonna start
fightin’ back.”

“Since then, there’s been about a hundred emails, most of them very
hateful and vulgar and intimidating – ‘You’re going to be held
responsible,’ that sort of thing,” Mrowka said. He’s spoken with various
law enforcement authorities about it, including the FBI, but so far
none of the messages have reached the level of a direct threat.

“The thing that’s been frustrating is that we’re the only ones
speaking out about this, and it’s really not in our wheelhouse,” he
noted. “We’re about speaking up for endangered species. We don’t know
that much about sovereign citizens and their theories.”

Mrowka said he has been forced to get up to speed what his harassers
are talking about when they use obscure pseudo-legal language to make
outlandish claims that the federal government has no authority over the
lands where Bundy’s cattle graze – classic hallmarks of antigovernment “Patriot” movement ideology in action. He said that sharing information with his colleagues about sovereign citizens has helped all of them get a better handle on the level of radicalism they’re up against.

Federal employees are also in the sights of the “Patriots” in the wake of the Bundy “range war.”
“I can’t speak firsthand, but I have received some confidential
information that federal employees are receiving harassment similar to
what I have been receiving,” Mrowka. “In fact, one of the Twitter links
that is attacking me also posted the pictures, names, addresses and maps
of some of the BLM officers that have been involved. And I understand
that the BLM offices are just being inundated. As are those of the Clark
County Commission.”

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.